By The Real ISLAM and Real

RELIGION

Why were
we
Created?
Why Did
ALLAH
Create US
 ‫بب‬
Abu Ameenah Bilal Philips
Part of a lecture delivered on the priorities of a Muslim today

All praise is due to Allah. May His prayers and blessings be

upon his Last Messenger and on all those who follow the
path of righteousness until the Last Day.

Not just Muslims, but every single human being has to

answer the most fundamental question at some point in his
or her lifetime:

"Why was I created? Why am I here? What am I doing

in this world? Why did God create me?"

These questions are questions which each and everyone of

us reflects on at some point during their life. We have some
answers, which are given generally but usually these
answers don't satisfy us - seeming somewhat simplistic. So,
we still wonder: "Why me? Why here?". I know all of you
(Muslims), are saying, "To worship Allah, khallas (finish).
What more is there to say? Why do we need to have a big
long talk on why we were created when we all know it is to
worship Allah?!"

But wait. If this is presented to a non-Muslim, the next

logical question would be, "Why does Allah want us to
worship Him?" Then your stuck, which can only mean that in
our own minds it is not really clear. Why did Allah create us
to worship Him?

Addressing the question, "Why did Allah create us?", we

have to understand how to deal with those people we live
with (in the West). Those who don't consider there to be any
purpose in man's creation, firmly believing that they are just
a product of evolution and that the forces of nature. Just as
we don't have apes, dogs or cows thinking about why they
are here, then we also don't have to think about it either.
Following from this belief being the basis of the philosophy
of Western society (that man is without purpose), the whole
issue of government, morality, etc. has no basis for them in
Revelation. The product of this attitude is, of course, the
corruption that we are living in.

When a Muslim addresses this topic, we have to find our

understanding from Divine Revelation and not human
speculation. Because human speculation has no bounds; we
can imagine all kinds of things and if any of you has studied
philosophy of religion, you will know how many opinions
there are about the creation of man and existence. Because
of the variety of philosophies which are out there, no one
can say this one is correct or that one is incorrect, because
there is no guidance behind it. No Divine Revelation. It is
only from Divine Revelation that we can determine the
reality of our creation, because it is Allah who has created us
and so He knows the purpose of our creation. We can hardly
understand it ourselves, much less trying to understand the
essence of things. So it is for Allah to inform us through the
revelation in the Qur'an and the Sunnah (the Prophetic
traditions) which were brought to us by His Last Messenger
and the Messengers before him.

Now if we are to look initially into revelation, to determine

why was man created, there is a deeper question that we
should be asking before that: "Why did God create?". This
before we even get to man because man is not the greatest
act of creation. Allah says:

"The creation of the Heavens and the Earth is indeed

greater then the creation of mankind; yet, most of
mankind know not." [Surah Ghafir, verse 57]

Man is not the greatest act of creation, this universe is far

more complex and far more magnificent than man. So the
issue of creation should then go to, "Why did God create?",
as opposed to simply, "Why create man?".
Fundamentally, we can say that the creation is the natural
consequence of the attribute of creator. Allah is the creator.
That is one of his attributes. That is what he has informed
us. That being his attribute, the creator, the natural
consequence or the product of this attribute is his creation.

A painter, if we are to draw a similitude on a lower level, who

tells you that he is a painter, if you ask him where are his
paintings and he replies I don’t have any. What kind of
painter is this? The concept of a painter who doesn’t paint,
there is some thing not quite gelling together here, of course
Allah is beyond this. But if we are to understand on the
simplest level, the two go together. The perfection of a
painter lies in his paintings. His quality and his ability to
paint, is manifest in his paintings. And Allah, beyond all that,
as creator, this quality of creation is manifest in the creation
itself. Allah didn’t create out of a need. No, the fact that he is
the creator, is manifest in the creation.

Furthermore, consider the act of creation, this act, with

regards to Allah is unique. Though we use the term i.e. So
and so created a table etc, actually it is in a limited sense.
Human beings don’t really create, they manipulate, because
they can only "create" what already exists. When we make a
chair or a table, we didn’t create the wood, we had to take it
from a tree, we didn’t create the metal, which makes the
screws etc, we had to melt down rocks and take the metal
out. So we are not creating from nothing. We are
manipulating things which Allah has already created in to
different shapes and forms which are useful to us. We call it
"creation" but the real act of creation, is creation from
nothing, and this is unique to Allah alone.

This is a concept, which many people in ignorance, because

they couldn’t grasp the idea of creation from nothingness, it
lead them to conclude that the world is Allah. Those who say
"inside of each and every atom is Allah." And you have
people, who call themselves Muslims saying this. Non-
Muslims have said this before and there are Muslims who
claim this. That Allah is inside each and everything, because
Allah is the reality and everything else is fake in their
interpretation. That means then, that the creation is Allah,
and Allah is the creation. Very, very dangerous concept,
which leads some of those who make this claim to say that
you don’t have to worship outside of yourself. Ibn Arabi, was
famous for this statement, he is considered to be one of the
saints, amongst the so called Sufi religion. Ibn Arabi said
"There is no need to worship one outside yourself, you are
Allah. It is sufficient to worship yourself." This is Shirk.

This concept of Allah being within his creation, no distinction

the creation and Allah, it leads them to this shirk. Because
they are unable to accept the uniqueness of Allah’s creation,
they compare the act of creation by Allah to human creation.
That is, just as we manipulate, Allah took pieces of himself
and made the earth and the universe. Others will say that all
human beings have inside of themselves Allah, that there is
a part of Allah inside each and everyone of us. The whole
essence, the purpose of life is for us to realize that we have
part of Allah inside of ourselves, remove the material blocks
which keep us from Allah and again become one with Allah
in what they call "fana". This is again a teaching of the Sufi
religion.

Becoming one with Allah, returning back to Allah in this

sense. But this is in fact part of the teachings of shirk.
Shaytan (Satan) has deluded man into this imagination. It is
part of the belief of the Hindus. Nirvana, the concept that
when you die, you are reborn again, and you move up in
stages, each time, if you are a good boy or good girl, you go
up higher and higher, until you get to the top. You know you
have reached the peak, because when you die the next time
you become one with the universal soul, Nirvana. That is the
end of rebirth. So your whole purpose is to return and
become one with God again. This is all, as I said, a product
of the inability to understand the concept of creation from
nothingness, which is unique to Allah. Allah says:

"There is nothing like him, and he is the hearer and

seer of all."

So when we try to interpret Allah’s creation like the way we

create, then we have made Him like his creation and it leads
us ultimately to those aspects of shirk which I have
mentioned. This is quite common amongst the Muslim world
today, because when you look into the various branches of
the Sufi religion, where they have prescribed various acts of
purification, they call it dhikr, exercises to torture the body
through spinning and dancing. What is the purpose of this?
They will tell you, to liberate the soul from this earthly body
and to achieve that state of "fana" or "itihad", a variety of
names they have for it.

It is this concept, which lead al-Hallaj, many centuries ago,

when he was promoting this idea, and he was put before a
panel of judges questioning these concepts, which he was
expressing. When they asked him to recant, to take this stuff
back, he stood up, opened up his cloak and said "There is
nothing inside this cloak except Allah". So they executed
him. And of course, those in the Sufi religion, they have
stories that when they cut his head off, it rolled around
saying "Allah, Allah, Allahu Akbar etc". It might have, that is
Shaytan may have entered and said these things, as
happened with the calf of the Isrealites, when the Prophet
Musa (Moses) let Egypt and the people, after crossing the
red sea, had a desire to have a god that they could see, so
they made a golden calf which they began to worship. This
calf was saying "moo" like the calves do. This is what
convinced them that this was the real thing. We know it
wasn’t the calf saying this. The evil jinn can enter the in to
physical entities, make sounds and give these impressions.
So there is no problem for us to say ok, maybe when they
cut of al-Hallaj’s head that it said these things, because this
was part of a test. If we are clear in terms of creator and
creation, this is no problem for us.

Allah is the creator and everything besides Him is His

creation, which He created from nothing. It is not Him, nor is
He it. This is the pure concept as taught by the Prophet
sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam, his companions, and the early
generations of righteous scholars, the students of the
companions and those who came after them. The best of
generations. That is how they understood this matter. There
was no confusion in their minds. It wasn’t until Islam spread
to areas like Egypt, India and Persia, areas where the
Christians had already gotten into deep philosophies, trying
to explain how Jesus was a man and god at the same time.
When they came in to Islam they brought it with them. This
is the reality. It is not something we should necessarily
condemn them for or feel is unusual. It is natural, when a
person reverts to Islam, that they will carry with them what
they believed before. What has been clarified for them, of
the basic principles, they accept, and they reject things,
which obviously contradict. But it doesn’t mean that every
last thought that they have, and everything that was wrong
in their philosophies, ideology and concepts will be erased.
They will carry these things in with them. This is why in the
later part of the Prophet's sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam life,
prior to his death, when he was coming back from one of the
battles, his companions asked him to set aside a tree for
them, that they could hang their weapons on, like the way
the pagans would hang their weapons on trees, believing
that when they hung the weapons, it became super-
powerful, as if some power was coming from the tree, that
their shields would now block steel and their swords would
cut through the enemy. Some of the companions who had
newly accepted Islam, asked the Prophet sallallahu 'alayhi
wa sallam to designate one for them, a special one, an
Islamic one. They understood that what the pagans had, this
was wrong. These were the companions of the Prophet
sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam and he had to clarify it for them.
He said:

You are like the companions of Musa who asked to have the
calf built.

And he clarified for them that all of this is shirk and there is
no place for it in Islam. So if it could happen to some of the
companions, then we cannot blame the generations who
have come after them, who come into Islam and carry with
them some of their old ideas. What it is for us to do is to
clarify.

So what we have in front of us then, is that Allah created this

universe out of nothing, and everything that is in it was
created. For example:

"Allah created all things, and he is the agent, upon

which, all things depend." [Surah 39, verse 62]

This is the reality. This is stressed for us, in order for us to

realize that ultimately, all good, all evil, that takes place in
the world, only takes place by the permission of Allah.
Therefore we should not seek any other channels to protect
ourselves from evil, or to gather for ourselves good, as
people commonly do today. They will go to fortunetellers,
this is big business today, all the magazines have various
forms of fortunetellers like dial a horoscope etc. in a society
that has lost touch with Allah, this is what is open to them.
Allah has stressed for us that no calamity will befall us
except by Allah’s permission;

"Nothing is taking place in this world except by the

permission of Allah."

And the Prophet sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam further

emphasized this principle by saying;

"If the whole of mankind gathered to do some thing to help

us, they could not help in anything which Allah had not
already written for us. And if the whole of mankind gathered
together to harm us, then they would not be able to harm
with anything which Allah had not already written for us."

Therefore what is required of us is to depend on Allah, put

our trust in Allah. This is what we have to draw out of this
attribute of Allah being the creator. This creation exists
because of that attribute. Its practical significance to us lies
in putting our trust in Allah.

There is another aspect, besides the fact that the creation

exists because Allah is the creator. We can also see from
what the Prophet sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam has informed
us, that in the creation there is manifestation of Allah’s
attributes of mercy, forgiveness, kindness etc etc. Allah
created man in paradise, they disobeyed Allah, but Allah had
taught them how to repent, how to turn back to him and
seek his forgiveness, then he would forgive them. Having
done that, they were forgiven, Adam became the first
prophet, and mankind was absolved of that sin. The story of
Adam and Eve is the story of human existence. Human
beings are given a consciousness of Allah. When Allah
created all human beings, as he states in the Qur'an, he took
from Adam (Adam) all of his descendents, and made them
all bear witness that Allah is their Lord. So we are all born
with that consciousness. He has also given us a
consciousness of what is right and what is wrong.

"We have inspired each and every soul to an

awareness of corruption and righteousness."
Allah gave revelation through his commandments, not to eat
of the tree. However, human beings forget. And when they
forget Allah then they fall into sin. We can absolve ourselves
of that sin by means of repentance, and Allah forgives us
when we repent sincerely. The Prophet sallallahu 'alayhi wa
sallam said;

"The one who repents is like the one without sin."

"If you did not commit sins and turn to Allah seeking his
forgiveness, then he would replace you with another people
who would sin, ask Allah’s forgiveness and he would forgive
them."

So in our sinning and asking Allah’s forgiveness, the

attribute of Allah’s mercy and forgiveness becomes
manifest. Allah knew what we were going to do before he
created us, he knew that he was creating a species who
would sin. If he didn’t wan t them to sin, if it was not his
intention to permit them to sin, then he could have created
angels, more angels. But the had already created angels, so
he chose to create a being, that would disobey his
commandments through forgetfulness or just simple
disobedience, but would turn back to him in repentance, and
his attribute of forgiveness would become manifest.
Similarly, his mercy;

The Prophet sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam is quoted as saying

that when Allah created the universe, He made an obligation
on Himself, recorded in a document, kept by Him, that "My
mercy precedes my wrath." He sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam
also was reported as saying;

"Allah created mercy with a hundred parts. One of which

was sent down upon the jinn and human beings and other
living creatures. It is out of this one part that they love each
other, show kindness to one another, and even the animals
treat their offspring with affection. Allah has reserved the
remaining ninety-nine parts for his true worshippers on the
Day of Judgment."

This is the mercy of Allah manifest in his creation. What is

also manifest in creation, in the act of creation, the creation
of man, is his attribute of justice, fairness, which comes out
as the judgment at the end of this world. I am sure we have
all read the ahadith in which the Prophet sallallahu 'alayhi
wa sallam said:

"Allah created some people for hell and some people for
paradise."

For allot of people, this is something very heavy. And the

companions, they asked the prophet sallallahu 'alayhi wa
sallam then what is the point in doing good deeds? If Allah
created some for heaven and some for hell then what is the
pin in doing anything? It has already been decided. The
Prophet sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam said:

"Each one of you will find it easy to do what he was created

for."

So if you choose the evil way, you find it easy and you carry
on in that way, then that was what you were created for. But
ultimately it is your choice. You choose hell. The fact hat
Allah has recorded, before anything was created, who would
be in hell and who would be in heaven does not change the
fact that it is we who choose. The judgment is only to
manifest to those who go to hell, that they deserve to be in
hell. It is only for them basically. Because if Allah created
you, and put you in paradise, with all that is in paradise, and
you see those people in hell suffering, are you going to ask
Allah, why did you put me in paradise? No. your going to say
"all praise be to Allah!" you don’t want to question or to
wonder, all you will be is ecstatic that you are of those in
paradise. So the judgment is not for you, it is for those who
are going to hell. If you happen to be amongst those who
were created for and put in hell, you would say, why me?
Why did you put me in hell? And Allah would say; because
you would have done so and so in your life. But you would
say; no, no I wouldn’t. If you give me a chance I would do
good deeds. You would not give up arguing.

So Allah has allowed us to live out our lives. So when we

stand before him, our book of deeds is spread before us, we
know without a shadow of a doubt, that we chose hell. That
Allah’s judgment is just. There is no injustice in it, in any way
shape or form. Allah says he oppresses no one. We will know
that we chose hell.
And the only thing that remains for us, and I pray that it is
not in fact us, who are going to hell, is to beg Allah for
another chance. Allah says;

"If you could only see when the sinners will bow their
heads before their lord, saying; O Lord, we have now
seen and heard, so send us back and we will do
righteous deeds. Verily, we now believe with
certainty."

This is the only response, which will be left for them. Or as

Allah said;

"And those whose light scales of good deeds, they

ruined themselves and they will be in hell eternally.
The fire will burn their faces, and they will grin with
disfigured lips, I will say to them; Were My Verses not
recited to you, and you rejected them? They will
reply; Our Lord, our misery overcame us and we were
a people astray. Our Lord, bring us out of this, and if
we ever return we will truly be unjust."

When we die, there remains behind us a barrier, the

Barzakh, none of us will come back, it is a one-way ticket.
Those poor individuals who think they will get another
chance, this is the new age religion, they think it is new, but
it is just plain old Hindu delusion, that when you die, you get
another chance to come back again. The effects of this
actually, among Hindus, where I am in the UAE, there are a
lot of Hindus here, everyday in the news paper you read
about a Hindu man or woman who ties a rope to a ceiling
fan, which is found in many of the homes, put it around their
neck, kicked away the chair and passed out of this world.
Suicide is common amongst them. Why? Because they think
they have another chance. It will be a rude awakening for
them when they meet the angel of death and find
themselves in the next life, realizing that there is no coming
back.

In the creation of man is manifest the grace of Allah. This is

a particular point which all of us should reflect on and be
thankful to Allah for. His grace, and Christians, they like to
refer to us Muslims as those who don’t believe in the grace
of God, we are those who look at God’s judgment and it is
just about deeds, you do good then you go to heaven, you
do bad and you go to hell, that is it, no grace there at all. For
them the grace of God is there for all those who accept that
he became a man, and was crucified by man, to provide
salvation for human beings who’s sins had become so great
that they could not remove that sin through any act
themselves. So it was with the spilling of the "Blood of God"
that we could be absolved of our sins. For them, if you
accept that God spilt his blood for mankind’s salvation, then
you have earned the grace of God. Does not matter what
you do as long as you have accepted this belief in the grace
of God.

Muslims also believe in the grace of God. Actually it plays a

major and significant role. Often it is not stressed but it is
important for us to realize how the grace of Allah is manifest
in our creation. The Prophet sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam said;

"Observe moderation, but if you fail, try to do as much as

you can moderately and be happy. For none of you will enter
Paradise only because of his deeds."

Of course when the companions heard that they said;

"O messenger of Allah, not even you? And the prophet

sallallahu 'alayhi wa sallam said, not even me. Were it not
that Allah wrapped me in his mercy. And bear in mind that
the deed most loved by Allah is one done constantly even if
it is small"

What does this mean? It means that God’s grace is manifest

in our lives in that were He to call us to account, one good
deed, one evil deed, equal to each other, then we would not
enter paradise, not even the prophets of Allah. But Allah
through his grace and mercy has multiplied the value of the
good deeds. Allah says;

"Whoever brings a good deed, shall the value of ten

like it. And whoever brings an evil deed will be
punished with one like it. And they will not be
wronged." [Surah Al-'Imran, verse 160]

This is Allah’s grace. Good deeds erase evil deeds. One good
deed will erase at least ten evil deeds. Allah’s grace is not
arbitrary, simply because you say I believe you have his
grace, no matter what you do, no. The more good you do,
the more of his grace is manifest in you. If you chose evil
and reject the good, then you don’t receive His grace, it
doesn’t matter what you say. If you say, I am a Muslim, I
believe, but really you don’t believe, it is just some words
you are saying, them you will not be subject to the grace of
Allah.

So the creation is a manifestation of Allah’s attribute of

being the creator. In the creation of man within the scheme
of things, there is manifest Allah’s attribute of mercy, his
attribute of justice and this is the reason for the creation of
man from the point of view of Allah. From human
perspective, why did God create man in terms of for what
purpose? Then this is the one we all know and are familiar
with;

"We did not create the jinn and men except to

worship us" [Surah adh-Dhariyyat, verse 56)

So relative to Allah, we were created in a means or a way in

which Allah has chosen to manifest his attributes of creation,
mercy, grace etc and he could have chosen another one. But
relative to us as human beings, we know that our purpose is
to worship Allah. As we said, Allah does not need our
worship, a Allah didn’t need to create. When he created us
to worship him, he didn’t create us, out of a need for our
worship, because Allah has no needs. In a famous hadith
qudsi in which Allah says;

If all of you, jinn and mankind, were to worship like the most
righteous amongst you, it would not increase the dominion
of Allah in any way shape or form. And if all of us, jinn and
mankind ...

Therefore when we look for the purpose of worship, we have

to look into man. Allah created us to worship him, because
we need to worship him. It is something he has given us as a
means of benefiting ourselves. We are the ones who benefit
from it. Worship has been established, fundamentally for the
growth, the spiritual growth of man. This growth takes place
through the remembrance of Allah. When you look at all the
different aspects of worship, you will see the core of it is
focused on the remembrance of Allah.
"Establish the prayer for My remembrance."

This is the essence for the consciousness of God. Allah says

that he has:

"…prescribed for us fasting, as he prescribed it for

those before us, so that we may fear him."

Worship is there for us to remember Allah. And it is in the

remembrance of Allah, that we achieve that consciousness.
Because it is when we forget Allah, that Shaytan causes us
to disobey Allah and fall into sin. So it is only in His
remembrance that we can attain salvation. All of the various
acts of worship from saying "Bismillah" when we eat is to
help us remember Allah in order to grow spiritually.

Allah has said that he has created us to test us, to see which
of us is best in deeds. He is not testing us to know, in the
sense that he doesn’t already know, but this world is a test
for us in order again that we can grow spiritually.

We cannot develop this spiritual characteristic of generosity

unless some of us have more then others and then we are
required to give of the wealth we have. When we give, we
grow. Similarly, if we were not in a position where others had
more then us then we wouldn’t have the ability to develop
the higher spiritual quality of contentment, patience,
satisfaction in what Allah has given us.

So it is all there in order to bring out the higher spiritual

qualities, which enable us to attain the state, which makes
us suitable and eligible to return to paradise. The paradise
from which we were created, we were created in paradise
and for paradise. Through our choices we have left, in this
life, a field of testing, where we can grow to a state where
we deserve paradise.

The purpose of this life is the worship of Allah, this life is a

test. A test for us, will we worship Allah, or will we forget
Him. This is where our focus has to begin.
 Brain

"And I did not create the jinn and mankind except to worship
Me."
(Qur'an surah Adh-Dhariyat 51:56)

It is He Who has created hearing, sight and hearts for you.

What little thanks you show!
(Qur'an Surat al-Mu'minun 23:78)

O man! what has deluded you in respect of your Noble Lord?

He Who created you and formed you and proportioned you
and assembled you in whatever way He willed.
(Qur'an Surat al-Infitar 82:6-8)

That is Allah, your Lord. There is no god but Him, the Creator
of everything.
So worship Him. He is responsible for everything.
Eyesight cannot perceive Him but He perceives eyesight.
He is the All-Penetrating, the All-Aware.
(Qur'an Surat al-An'am 6:102-103)

Say: "Who is the Lord of the heavens and the earth?"

Say: "Allah." Say: "So why have you taken protectors apart
from Him who possess no power to help or harm
themselves?"
Say: "Are the blind and seeing equal? Or are darkness and
light the same?
Or have they assigned partners to Allah who create as He
creates,
so that all creating seems the same to them?"
Say: "Allah is the Creator of everything.
He is the One, the All-Conquering.'
(Qur'an Surat ar-Ra'd 13:16)

That is Allah, your Lord.

There is no god but Him, the Creator of everything.
So worship Him. He is responsible for everything.
 (Qur'an Surat al-An'am 6:102)

It is He Who forms you in the womb however He wills. There

is no god but Him, the Almighty, the All-Wise.
(Qur'an Surah Ali Imran 3: 6)